This is not your grandparents' Democratic Party.  It is certainly not the 21st century New Deal.  This current "Democratic" Party led by Obama and the so called leadership on Capitol Hill is not just a shadow of its former self, but more a shadow of the GOP rather than the populist, common good people's party it was formerly known for and proud of.

Roger Bybee at Working, In These Times writes: "The Republicans are brazenly displaying their loyalty to the richest 1 percent of Americans by fighting to extend George W. Bush's tax cuts at the very same time they oppose an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless.

"So why aren't Democratic leaders jubilant about the chance to exploit the Republicans' naked act of  class warfare? After all, the Republicans, in the midst of severe economic hardship, are supporting more wealth for those who need it least?

"Unforunately, there's good reason for the Democrats' pessimism, based on their shabby treatment of their most excited and hopeful voters. This is bound to be a crucial factor shaping who shows up at the polls in a non-presidential year.

"Perhaps top Democrats are finally recognizing the huge "enthusiasm gap" between their now demoralized, drifting constituents and the ferocious and focused activism of the Republican base.

"Obama entered the White House facing an unprecedented level of problems, but he also had an extraordinarily involved and well-organized base of voters. But the White House has taken these voters for granted while playing for legitimacy with Wall Street. For example, It's amazing to recall that just weeks before the BP disaster Obama had capitulated to endorsing off-shore drilling.

"If the Democrats had more credibility as tough fighters willing to risk anything for working people hammered by Wall Street, they would be much better positioned to use the current situation to dramatize the distinctions between the two parties as we head toward November's elections."

But they aren't fighters for regular people.  The current members of the Democratic Party in the White House and on Capitol Hill are mostly DINOs, many of whom are millionaires more concerned, like their colleagues in the GOP, with their wealthy, powerful cronies in the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street casino driven financial industry......the hell with the struggling people on Main Street.

As Jon Walker observes at Firedoglake:

"On ' Meet the Press,' Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, inadvertently admitted how mediocre the new health care law is when he attacked Republican Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposal for Medicare. The new health care law creates a system of expanding coverage by forcing people to buy poorly regulated private health insurance and providing subsidies or vouchers to make it more affordable.

"Rep. Ryan’s 'Roadmap for America's Future' would completely eliminate Medicare and replace it with a system similar to the new health care law’s exchanges for individuals and small businesses. Seniors would no longer just directly receive government health insurance from the popular Medicare program. Instead, just like those who buy from new exchanges, they would receive government subsidies and be required to buy their own individual coverage from the private insurance companies.

"Van Hollen correctly argues that government-run, single-payer Medicare is a much better way to provide health insurance than subsidized individual private insurance plans. Yet, during the health care fight, he never advocated for the simple solution of expanding Medicare to the uninsured. He promoted a law that used an idea—from the Republicans—to make vouchers for private insurance.

"If Ryan’s plan is 'throwing seniors over to the insurance industry,' then, by default, the new health care law Van Hollen supported is throwing the uninsured and individuals under 65 over to the insurance industry. It is too bad that it’s only after passage that Van Hollen finally, accidentally, admits the new law’s way to expand coverage is absurd compared with implementing single-payer public health insurance.

However, this is what the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress did with their Rube Goldberg fiasco of a health care "reform" bill, with a diluted, not effective enough stimulus, and a pitiful financial "reform" bill that changes very little.  They betrayed traditional Democratic Party values in favor of DINO/GOP policies.

Instead of being 21st century New Deal tough Democratic fighters "willing to risk anything for working people hammered by Wall Street" and the Bush administration, they are spineless DINOs caving to minority Republicans and corporate controllers while protecting, imitating, and embracing many of destructive and despicable policies and philosophies of the Republican Party, former GOP administrations, and triangulating DINO Clintonites.

No wonder the real Democratic base is disgusted.